I'm in a session where I have explored all systems within the range limit of my home world. My explorer ships have found colonizable worlds but they claim to be too far from my home world. Is there any way too overcome this problem or must I start over. Could the slider in the options panel be set too low/high for acceptable distances between colonized worlds? I think I set the slider to 1.75 sectors. Any help would be appreciated. I'm puzzled why my ships can explore out that far, but the colonizers won't proceed. There are refueling points in between.

Yes that would probably be because of the colonization range distance you set when creating your new game.

On the previous game I set the maximum range to 1 (sector.) But the problem I had was luck became too much of a factor, since empires with more planets to colonize nearby could spread faster, since it expanded their colonization range, but empires with few or no planets to colonize nearby had to wait it out until they got the appropriate tech. So my empire had 1-2 planets, where my neighbor had 8-10.

In my next game I'm trying 1.5 distance to see how that pans out, but it also depends on number of sectors and systems.

I remember when this feature wasn't even in the game, and empires would be colonizing planets everywhere, far away from the rest of their empire; so I very much like that the feature is available.

So it would probably be up to your personal preference what you'd like to set it to, if you're having difficulty colonizing you could try turning it up, however you can only set it when starting a new game.

Personally I find 2 sector range works best for me for any map size other then 4x4. I've only started one game where 2 sectors has really inhibited expansion for everyone (and that's because I put the map size up and forgot to increase the stars from 400 ).

I use 1.25 to 1.5 sectors and find it fairly challenging. Sometimes it means I have to push hard on techs to colonize volcanic planets, etc to get past them to some of the jucier stuff out farther. Part of the enjoyment of the game for me is planning how to get "on out there" and conquer distant worlds (say, isn't that the "name of the game"). Eagerly looking forward to the next expansion -- whatever it may be! whenever it may be!?

All good suggestions but I think I got had by the Random Number Generator's fickle finger of fate! No low class planets to develop either! That leaves a crash program of trying to develop terraforming tech while I just know that somewhere out there an AI is licking its chops at the prospect of an ill-prepared victim. Thanks again for the great input but extinction seems like the odds on favorite for my little band of wayfarers.

I like this feature but I recommend setting it to higher than default. The game does not seem to recognise diagonals as a single sector distance, so diagonal potential colonies need to be very close

For example, in my current game, I have a planet with an independent population of my own race in the sector diagonally down and to the left of my homeworld. It is less than 2 sectors distance away but I still can't colonize it because it is too far from my existing colonies, even though I have the distance set to two sectors. I can only assume that the game is either a)got a bug or b)thinking in an L shape rather than true diagonals.

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"My body may be confined to this chair, but my mind is free to explore the universe" - Stephen Hawking

@Woodman from my experiences the game generates a circle rather then a square for max colony range purposes. As such, despite sectors appearing as squares, it'll give you one missing the corners for range. Could be wrong though, but that's just personal findings.

I understand what you mean Frildin (this is also how I think of it working). I will post a screenshot tomorrow, I just shut down the game for the night. I have the planet now because I landed troops on it, but you can see from the map it is definately less than 2 sectors away no matter how you shape it (I'd say it is just over a single sector). I wonder if the sector size referred to on this setting is for a Normal size galaxy, I am playing a Huge galaxy. That could be another explanation.

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"My body may be confined to this chair, but my mind is free to explore the universe" - Stephen Hawking